May bank holiday works in numbers
Timely engineering work is necessary for millions of you – and the freight companies that rely on the railway every day.
Our goal is to keep Britain moving. To do this, we carried out lots of different types of projects this early May bank holiday.
They included things like laying new tracks, updating overhead lines and even building new bridges and stations.
Here’s just some of what we got up to in numbers:
£73m
The total amount of investment we made this early May bank holiday to keep the nation’s railways running as efficiently as possible.
600+
The projects we completed as part of our continuous goal to improve reliability for you. They spanned a wide range of different projects.
Our work isn’t limited to the railway either. We’ve been involved in other important infrastructure projects like the construction of a new and temporary bridge in Leven, Fife that will help ease traffic while we upgrade the older historic bridge there.
82
Engineering trains used throughout the early May weekend. These are vital to getting our teams and equipment safely to, between and from each project.
1,186
Wagons moving materials such as ballast – the stones that support the track – to our projects, and waste away from our sites.
16,000
The new rail that replaced old and tired rail. This keeps our railway safe and reduces the disruption that faults could otherwise cause to your journeys.
£14.5m
Our investment between London and Scotland on the West Coast Main Line.
We carried out a range of essential upgrades on the railway between London Euston, the Midlands, North West of England and Scotland.
Things like:
- work to 25,000-volt overhead lines, which power trains at Euston and Kings Langley to make them more resilient during hot weather
- track upgrades in Harrow and Wealdstone, Tring, Cumbria and Lancashire to keep the track as efficient and safe as possible
- overhead line upgrades at Bushey to help us continue running faster and greener services
- work to remove the old arrival and departure boards at Euston station, helping keep this station building ship-shape
- upgrades to track foundation stone at Willesden North, Watford South Junction and Wigan – the essential building blocks to safe rail tracks
- platform extensions at Leyland station for better services
- signalling work at Basford Hall in Crewe to keep the huge number of trains passing through moving smoothly and safely
- continuing work on the Transpennine Route Upgrade at Stalybridge that will improve connectivity in the North and support economic growth
- ongoing construction of a new Merseyrail station to further transform travel in the North of England.
Two
The number of bank holiday weekends we’ve already completed – and we’re not done yet.
This May we’ve already carried out two lots of bank holiday works to give you better journeys for the long term.
We delivered our usual early May projects – and an extra weekend of planned works during the Coronation bank holiday.
5,000+
Armed forces played a vital role in the Coronation service on Saturday 6 May and we were honoured to help transport thousands of members from all over Britain to London Waterloo Station that very morning.
This is the biggest movement of military personnel by the rail industry since Winston Churchill’s funeral in 1965.
